5 Surprising Egg Substitutes

Veganizing most traditional baking recipes is a cinch as long as you know a few key substitutions. For a butter substitute, there’s vegan margarine. For dairy milk, there’s soy milk, almond milk, and other nondairy milks. Those are easy, but how do you replace eggs?

The substitute you choose depends on the recipe, and luckily, you might already have many of these ingredients in your kitchen. Longtime vegans might be familiar with a couple of the items on this list, but there are a few surprises, too.

Here are five surprising egg substitutes that you can use to veganize recipes:

1. Applesauce

Use applesauce to add moisture. Replace one egg with 1/4 cup of applesauce in sweet desserts.

2. Bananas

Use bananas to add moisture. One mashed banana can replace one egg in cakes and sweet breads.

3. Flaxseeds

Use flaxseeds for binding. Combine 1 tablespoonful of ground flaxseeds with 3 tablespoonfuls of water to make a thick and gelatinous egg replacement.

4. Instant mashed potatoes

Use instant mashed potatoes for binding. Use 2 tablespoonfuls of instant mashed potatoes to replace one egg in recipes that are meant to be dense.

5. Diet soda

Use diet soda as a leavening agent. One can of diet soda can be used to replace two eggs in many cake recipes.

For more tips on vegan baking, check out our Ultimate Vegan Baking Cheat Sheet. There’s also this handy infographic:

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